Hot Topics:

Education stressed during Gateway Cities event

LOWELL -- Gateway Cities, old manufacturing cities like Lowell, Lawrence or Fitchburg that often struggle with job growth have made economic development a key priority over the years.

But education is very important, too, those who gathered at a Gateway Cities forum in Lowell Wednesday said. Good schools can attract residents and prepare children well for college and the workforce.

"Education is a more difficult nut to crack than economic development," said Ben Forman, the research director for MassINC, the nonpartisan thinktank that has worked with Gateway Cities to plot ways to match the economic and educational achievement of the rest of the state.

Higher achievement levels in such cities, which also include Springfield and Worcester, could have a significant effect on the state. One-fourth of Massachusetts students are in Gateway City schools, according to MassINC.

Those schools have historically trailed the achievement levels of other Massachusetts schools, but the gap is narrowing.

In math MCAS scores, for example, Gateway City schools once trailed the state average by 12 percent just more than a decade ago. By the 2011-'12 school year, that gap had closed to about 2 percent.